The number of Freemasons in Somerset has fallen from 4500 in 2000 to 3700 today. Almost all of the 88 Lodges in the Province have suffered a reduction. The reasons are of course many and varied, some outside our control but the Provincial Grand Master and his executive believe that Lodges can prosper in this challenging climate if they try to plan ahead.To that end every Lodge has been invited to put together a five year rolling plan based on a survey of current members views, wishes and needs. This section of the Provincial web site is intended to help Lodges through that process by providing resource and information.

August 2015 Progress report

At the Lodge secretary’s annual meeting on 26th August the Past Deputy PGM Ray Guthrie gave an update on what Lodges throughout the Province have achieved in working through the planning process over the past twelve months. Their experience has helped the province produce an updated version of the original getting started document. The new document incorporates the success, simplifies the process and hopefully makes it easier for all Lodges to produce a good working plan. We have also produced simple templates for Officer succession and a future meeting plan.New DownloadsRevised getting started documentFive year plan for officersThree year meeting plan

Following through the process

Survey of members - What do they want, times of lodge meetings, content of meetings. The experience of the last year has shown response to survey forms is generally poor (average25%) Personal contact is a much more reliable way of gathering information. However a sample survey form can be downloaded here. It can be adapt it to suit your requirements. It can be used as the basis for a script for personal contact. ( Word.doc format )

Colate responses

Action meeting - not all the points you will have to consider will be covered by the survey.

Formulate an action Plan. Sample is available here.

Discuss the options that come out of the survey and initial plan.

Discuss the plan at the workshop organised by Provincial Grand Lodge.

Finalise the plan set the targets and objectives.

Every six months review progress and modify plan to suit changing requirements.